Sonny Barger: My last book was the story of my life in the Hell's Angels. With the new book, every chapter is a different story and has almost nothing to with the club. Some of the stories are things that happened to me, some are stuff that happened to my friends and the rest are things that happened to people I don't even know. They wrote what happened and I rewrote them and put them into the book. I changed the names and I call it, fiction based on fact. Sometimes I would sit around at a bar and someone starts to tell me a story, so that went into the book.

DE: What made you want to put it together?

SB: Harper Collins offered me a good deal on it.

DE: How did you first become involved with the Hell's Angels?

SB: Well back when I got out of the army in the mid-1950's I had a motorcycle and I wanted to ride with other people. So I just hooked up with them. My friend, who I rode with at the time, and I didn't even know of the Angels. We just ended up meeting with them riding the highways and joining them.

DE: Is anyone from the club upset about the books and their content?

SB: No it was voted on that I could do it. We don't do anything with the club name without a vote.

DE: You were in prison for many years. What's prison like for a member of the Angels, do they keep you safe?

SB: You're about as safe as anyone else.

DE: What's your favorite kind of motorcycle?

SB: Well I ride a Harley. It's not my favorite but that's what I ride.

DE: I heard you dislike Harleys.

SB: They're getting better, the last fifty years that I rode them they are continually getting better. I wasn't in the Hells Angels I probably would have never rode one. The new ones are really nice.

DE: You became the unofficial leader of the Angels. How did that happen?

SB: I was there the longest.

DE: What does being the leader entail?

SB: It's not a whole lot of anything. Its just I was the spokesman for many years.

DE: You have your own line of beer coming out. When is that?

SB: It's coming out in North Carolina, next month. Sonny Barger Premium Lager.

DE: Why did you do so many drugs?

SB: Well you got to remember that all them stories came out of the sixties. Those of us that survived don't really do that anymore.

DE: Hunter S. Thompson hung out with you for a bit.

SB: He was a pain in the ass. He ended up getting beat up and sent down the road.

DE: What is the point of the Hell's Angels back then?

SB: Same thing as now, just ride motorcycles and have fun.

DE: What really happened at Altamont?

SB: Everyone saw what really happened. A guy pulled a gun and fired it into the crowd of us and we defended ourselves. Anybody can say what they want, you can call it murder like they did back then but the person that was accused of murder was acquitted by jury because it was self-defense.

We had the same thing happen the other day in New York. But instead of one guy it was a lot of guys. People came running in the door of the building we were in, shooting and hitting people with baseball bats. There were women and children in there and somehow five of them got shoved out the door. They arrested one of us for murder when they should have given him a hero's badge. We saved everybody's life.

I live in a state that lets you use deadly force to save your life. Arizona. We are just not used to letting people run in and shoot you while the cops don't do anything. We don't like that, we like to defend ourselves.

DE: Do you ever tell your 12-year-old daughter any stories?

SB: Oh yeah. She reads the book, hell she lives with me. She knows what goes on. She has her own motorcycle. A 200 Honda dirt bike.

DE: What movie has been the most accurate portrayal of Hell's Angels?

SB: I don't think there ever has been one, other than the documentary we made. But it's old and outdated. The History Channel did one on fifty years in the club and that's probably the best one that will ever happen.

DE: I hear you don't like doing interviews.

SB: Well in England I took this guy's tape recorder and threw it out the window.

rozehead said:
pain in the ass or not, everyone should read Hunter S. Thompson's account of life in the 60s and on the road with them in "Hells Angels".
great early perspective of the scene from an almost in, outsider.